


Reel Talk 2: Get Reel

by PiousMage



Series: Reel Talk Starring Pearl And Marina [2]
Category: Splatoon
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Lesbian Cephalopods (Splatoon), Post-Octo Expansion DLC
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-18
Updated: 2019-05-18
Packaged: 2020-03-07 14:09:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18874765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PiousMage/pseuds/PiousMage
Summary: “Pearl and Marina loved each other, were in love with one another.” But how do you tell the world with your next hit single?





	Reel Talk 2: Get Reel

Pearl and Marina loved each other, were in love with one another. Both of them knew and embraced that. And both of them wanted to announce it to the world with their next single, “Reel Talk.” 

The title was set in stone. It was a clever pun, like Shark Bytes and the duo’s name, Off The Hook. It symbolized how their confessions to each other had come after an evening of real talk. It was also, for the moment, the only aspect of the song they were able to agree on.

Pearl didn’t want to do another ballad so soon after the release of Into The Light. She wanted a high BPM and thumping percussion, both to represent how her heart felt that night. 

Marina, as always, understood where Pearl was coming from. But she was apprehensive about not recording a traditional love song. She felt that, regardless of the lyrics, their message risked getting lost in the noise if they didn’t do it by the book.

At the heart of it all, both of them wanted the same thing: to get this massive moment right. Countless musical acts had come and gone in Inkopolis history, but neither Pearl nor Marina were able to recall something like this happening. An idol duo announcing they were in love with each other using their next hit single? It was something out of a fantasy, but now it was their reality.

After a few days of deadlock, Marina realized something. “You know, Pearlie, this is bigger than just us.” She stared at the blank sheet of paper in front of her as she spoke.

Pearl had been pacing laps in the recording studio for what felt like hours. “What do you mean, Rina?” she asked.

“Whenever I’m writing music, I try to imagine who might one day be listening to it, connecting to it.” Marina pulled her legs up into the chair she was sitting in and wrapped her arms around them. “I just started thinking about other people who might have the same story as us. Friends so close that they don’t realize how deeply they are in love with one another.”

Before she could overthink it, Pearl walked over to Marina and wrapped her arms around her. “You think this song could help people realize their feelings.”

Marina nodded, leaning into Pearl’s arms. “Yeah. I want to do right by us. By everyone.” She closed her eyes, remembering a past life. “The Squid Sisters’ song connected with me, with Eight. It saved us. That’s why I always try to remember the power that music can have.”

By the time Marina had finished her sentence, Pearl had already hatched her next great idea. “Well, Rina, if you say this is bigger than us,” she said as she walked around the chair to face her partner, “then we should ask for help.” She coyly put a pair of fingers under Marina’s chin and tilted her face up in a rare moment of Pearl having a height advantage. “Maybe from the Squid Sisters themselves.”

“Pearlie, that’s it!” Marina exclaimed, throwing her arms around Pearl and nearly falling out of her chair. “No one knows the impact that music can have better than they do!”

“Hey, hey, careful!” Pearl patted Marina’s back reassuringly, enjoying the feeling of being the same height. “You can ask Marie. I’ll hit up Callie.” She reluctantly broke the embrace so she could punch her fist into her palm as a punctuation for her next sentence. “Then we’ll meet back up, slam the advice we get together, and we’ll be able to get this song out into the world.”

Pearl’s mischievous grin was infectious, and Marina couldn’t help but catch it. “Yeah! Let’s do this!”

Marina stood up and held out her fist, and Pearl instinctively met it with her own, which had still been balled up inside her other palm. But rather than leave it at that, Pearl took her now-free hand and used it to pull Marina’s outstretched arm, bringing her back down to her level and allowing Pearl to press her lips against Marina’s.

-

“How strong do you like your tea, Marina?” Marie called over from the kitchen. She stood with her hands on her hips in front of a pantry that was stocked to the brim. 

“Oh, not too strong, please!” Marina politely responded from the living room, her hands neatly folded in her lap as she sat on the couch.

As Marie fussed in the kitchen, Marina casually let her eyes wander to take in Marie’s apartment. It was strangely small and cozy, a far cry from Pearl’s mansion. Marie felt larger than life sometimes, but she still lived in the very same apartment that she had gotten when she first moved to Inkopolis with Callie. In fact, Callie had only moved out a few months back, shortly after Agent 4 broke DJ Octavio’s hold on her.

There were still a few places where Marina could tell that something of Callie’s used to be there, and that Marie had yet to fill the void with anything else yet. There were a few set pieces from the Squid Sisters’ time hosting Inkopolis News, a few golden and platinum records from their run at the top of the charts, and even a trophy featuring small golden figures of Callie and Marie in their trademark “Stay fresh!” pose.

Marina jumped slightly when all of a sudden Marie was in front of her setting down a saucer and cup of tea. “Th-thank you!” she said, blushing as she leaned forward to stir it. 

Marie covered her mouth and giggled a little bit at the fact that she had caught Marina lost in thought. She sat down across from her in a large, comfortable chair, crossing her legs as she set her own teacup and saucer down on the end table flanking her. She hadn’t changed out of the camisole and sweatpants she was wearing when Marina texted her and asked to come over, but she had taken the time to do her makeup and hair, impeccable as usual.

“My pleasure, darling. It’s good to have company.” Marie picked up her teacup and gingerly sipped, having prepared some green tea with a hint of honey. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

Marina blew on her own tea, somewhat shocked that Marie was already able to enjoy it. “Since our concert together, I think.”

“Goodness, it has been a while,” Marie responded, resting her free palm on the side of her face. “You know, I never got a chance to congratulate you two on your headlining show. I watched the livestream,” she continued as she set her teacup down, “and you two were phenomenal.”

“Thank you, Marie. That means a lot coming from you.” Marina finally had a chance to sip her tea as she thought about the right word to describe how it felt. “It was...exhilarating.”

Marie smiled. “You both looked like you were having fun, like you belonged together there on that stage.” She leaned back and took a deep breath. “When you first took over for us on Inkopolis News, I thought you looked a bit unsure at times. But all that’s long gone now.”

Before Marina, blushing again, could have a chance to respond, Marie realized that she hadn’t come here to hear her go on and on. “Sorry, darling. I’ve been working on realizing when I’m dominating a conversation.” She picked up her teacup again. “You said you had a question for me. Hit me.”

“Ah, yes. Well, it was a pretty emotional concert. Pearlie and I left everything out there on that stage. We ended up having a pretty deep talk about our feelings that same night.”

“Feelings, huh?” Marie asked, as the gears turned in her head. It was barely two seconds before she came to her conclusion. “I see! Feelings for each other, right?”

At that, Marina blushed a third time, surprised that it was so obvious. She hesitated to meet Marie’s piercing gaze and wide grin. “How did you know?”

Marie waved a hand. “I performed on the same stage as you two, remember? I noticed the way you two looked at each other. I thought it was a possibility, at least.” She took another sip of her tea, unable to wipe the smile off her own face. “So I’m right then.”

“Yeah. You are. We actually,” Marina smiled as she remembered, “kissed each other that night.”

“That’s adorable. So let me guess.” Marie pointed a teasing finger across the coffee table. “You can tell me just fine. You don’t know how to tell the world.”

“Wow. Yeah. That’s it. Pearlie and I want to write a song about it but we want to do it right.”

“That’s your problem.” Marie sipped the rest of her tea and set her cup down with a satisfying tink. “The harder you try to get something right, the harder it becomes to get something right. As long as you’re doing it for the right reasons, your intentions will show through in whatever you create.”

Marina stared down at the puddle of tea left in her cup. “Then what are we supposed to create?”

Marie put a finger to her chin. “If you and Pearl want to share your love with the world, then it’s simple. Make something only the two of you could make. Something uniquely Pearl and Marina.”

“How do I do that?”

Marie stood up and shrugged, offering Marina a wry grin. “Well now, if I told you that wouldn’t make it uniquely you, now would it?”

-

Musselforge Fitness wasn’t the place that Pearl was expecting to meet Callie at, but sure enough, she was there. She didn’t look anything like she usually did. Her long twintails were tied up in a bun, and she was wearing a tank top and gym shorts with a towel draped around her neck.

As Callie jogged up to meet Pearl after waving enthusiastically to confirm that yes, it was Callie, Pearl remembered something. Seeing that easygoing smile and noticing how toned her bare arms were, Pearl realized that her old celebrity crush might not have fully gone away. Still hanging in one of Pearl’s many closets back home was Pearl’s shirt from the big Squid Sisters Splatfest, emblazoned with Callie’s face. 

“What’s the matter, Pearls? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Callie said, putting a friendly hand on Pearl’s shoulder and squeezing it.

Pearl was in danger of discombobulating. Forget that she had met Callie plenty of times beforehand, forget that they had shared a stage. Something about the way Callie looked was so down-to-earth that it made Pearl feel like a fangirl again. She had to physically shake her head to get her ducks back in a row.

“Yeah, sorry. Just got a lot on my mind lately. You know how it is.”

Callie did know how it is. She had lost that grandiose Squid Sisters Splatfest, and even though it had all been in good fun, she couldn’t shake the idea that she was less liked than her cousin Marie. They ended up drifting apart, Callie ended up falling in with a dangerous crowd, and there was a whole situation.

It was for that reason that Callie secretly hoped that there wouldn’t eventually be a Pearl/Marina Splatfest, but she blinked those thoughts away as she replied to Pearl.

“No prob. You said you needed help with a new song, yeah?” Callie asked as she toweled off some sweat from her forehead. “Come on, I have a private lounge here.”

Pearl raised an eyebrow as she followed Callie. “You have an entire lounge to yourself?” It was a funny question coming from someone whose mansion featured a full gym.

Callie nodded as she smiled and waved to a pair of Inklings that had spotted them. “I’ve been coming here a lot recently. I figured it was a good investment!” she said, sighing as she scanned her key card and opened the door. “Plus, I think I need to learn how to be alone.”

Although Pearl sensed there was something more to what Callie had just said, she didn’t come here to have that conversation. “I get that. Nice place, though!”

There was a TV, a treadmill, an elliptical, and a couple of lush chairs. Callie paused for a moment next to the elliptical, but then plopped herself down in one of the chairs, leaning her head back. “Good place to cool down.” She tilted her head back up and faced Pearl, who had yet to sit down. “So what do you got cooking up? Some fresh beats?”

Pearl laughed nervously as she shifted her weight. “Nope. Did you see our concert last week?”

Callie grabbed a bottle of water from the table and popped the top. “I didn’t get to see it live, but I watched the whole thing soon as I could. You brought down the house!” She took a long sip and then exhaled. “Whose idea was the costume change?”

A perfect segue. “Funny you ask that! It was kinda both of us’s idea, but in different ways. I thought it’d be cool to wear some different outfits before we started playing our new material,” Pearl explained, pausing for a moment as she thought of Marina. She smiled before continuing, “but me jumping out was all Marina. She said it was so me.”

Callie nodded enthusiastically. “It was! The crowd ate it up!”

Any more about that and Pearl’s ego risked rupturing. She quickly commandeered the conversation again. “Yeah, it was an amazing night! It’s kind of what our new song is going to be about, actually.”

The water bottle Callie held was already half empty. “You’re making a song about that concert?”

Pearl couldn’t help but break into a wide smile. “Nope! Well, a little. It’s more about what happened after the concert.”

There was a bit of silence as Pearl expected Callie to get what she was hinting at, but the look on Callie’s face was equal levels adorable and blank.

Oh well. Pearl had no problem blabbing about it. “We kissed, Callie!”

She probably should have waited until after Callie had finished drinking her water, because it all of a sudden sprayed everywhere as she exclaimed, “Oh shit!”

Some of the water had hit Pearl but she was too busy laughing to care. “Yeah, it was amazing! It just kind of happened! We were talking about our feelings and then,” she said before slapping her hands together loudly, “although I guess it was actually a lot softer than that.”

Callie was still recovering from the initial shock. “So wait, are you two like, a thing now?”

All Pearl could do was bite her lip and nod, some of her teeth showing as the corners of her mouth were pulled upward by the uplifting feeling she got whenever she thought about Marina.

In an instant, Callie was squealing like a schoolgirl and hugging Pearl tightly, the bottle of water wobbling as her leg struck the table when she rushed over. “Pearls! That’s awesome! Oh my gosh!”

Pearl was a bit taken aback and for a moment re-remembered her celebrity crush, who was now almost crushing her, but she hugged back after gathering herself. 

Before she could say anything, Callie was already spouting off. “Is that what you’re making the song about? That’s going to be so cute! So cool! What kind of song is it going to be? Is there going to be a music video?”

She felt bad cutting Callie off but she had to. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, Cal. One step at a time. We ain’t even wrote the song yet.” She paused for a moment, as reality tugged her back down to earth from cloud nine. “We got a bad case of writer’s block.”

Callie frowned. “Aw.” She realized something. “Oh! That’s why you’re here!”

“Yup. Any ideas?”

Callie plopped herself back down in her chair and wrinkled her brow in thought. Either a few seconds or an hour passed before she suddenly stood up, a glint of inspiration in her eyes.

“Remember when you,” she said before clapping her hands together like Pearl had done earlier.

“Yeah, but like I said it was a lot softer than that.”

“That doesn’t matter! That’s where I got my idea!” Callie conspiratorially skulked over to Pearl and slipped an arm around her shoulder, pulling her in close as if she was about to divulge her greatest secret. “A mashup.”

“A mashup?”

“Make a solo song about how Marina makes you feel. Get her to do a solo about how you make her feel.” She clapped her hands together again. “Mashup!”

Pearl could feel her heartbeat accelerating to the BPM of the song she had in mind before. “That’s so...simple. It’s perfect!”

Callie squeezed Pearl a bit tighter as she laughed. “Don’t forget to credit me in the liner notes!”

-

In the depths of the sprawling underground beneath Inkopolis, an Inkling and an Octoling sat side-by-side, sharing a pair of earphones as they rode the Deepsea Metro. Agent 3 of the New Squidbeak Splatoon scrolled through the feed of the phone that the earphones were attached to as Agent 8 curiously peered over her shoulder.

“Oh, Off The Hook put out a new song,” Three said matter-of-factly. “It’s called Reel Talk.” Without asking Eight whether or not she wanted to listen, she hit play.

It started off simple enough, with Marina vocalizing over some soft instrumentation. Sounded like a love song. Seemed a little bit out of character for Off The Hook. But as Marina sang about her heartbeat getting faster and faster, the drums started going off and at the end of the intro, like a rollercoaster, the song suddenly launched forward and Pearl started rapid-fire spitting over a thumping beat about her own heart thumping out of her chest.

“I like it,” Eight said softly, closing her eyes.

Three turned to face Eight just in time for the hook, when Pearl and Marina’s voices joined for the first time, harmonizing, singing about loving each other and then the joy of discovering that you’re IN love with each other. 

Eight’s eyes opened as Pearl’s next verse started firing off, punctuated by samples of Marina’s resounding high notes. Both their faces flushed as Pearl and Marina sang to them.

“I like it too,” Three said flatly, draping her arm around Eight and pulling her closer. 


End file.
